“In my end is my beginning” T.S Eliot

The moment when, usually at some point during our 50s and 60s, we are required to leave behind our careers and embrace whatever’s next, is a very particular point in our lives and one that can bring up unexpected challenges.

The day we walk out of the office for the last time, willingly or unwillingly, will be the time to start again. This could be a modest shift, taking our client relationships and developing them for our personal benefit rather than the corporate. On the other hand, it might be time to start all over again. Clean page. New Me.

Over recent months, I have spent a lot of time listening to my coaching clients share their struggle with this issue and frequently it’s brought to mind various lines from TS Eliot’s “Four Quartets, such as:

  “What we call the beginning is often the end

  And to make an end is to make a beginning.

  The end is where we start from…”

Throughout Four Quartets, Eliot comes back again and again to the idea of beginnings and endings. At one point he describes it as being like the moment when the tube train stops between stations :

 “And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen

 Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;”

So, what’s the learning here?

Well, don’t underestimate the importance of this time in your life and be sure to make the most of the period of reflection that coming to the end of your career might offer you. Don’t feel pressurised to stop work on a Friday and begin the next stage of your life on the following Monday. Coming to terms with where you stand in your life’s journey is a big deal. Give it the time and space it deserves. it doesn't have to be about facing 'the growing terror of nothing to think about"

Embrace what’s often called a period of “liminality”. This is a period of life where we find ourselves between two different stages or conditions. As human beings we tend not to like this uncertainty. At the age of fifty plus, shouldn’t we have worked all this out? But, be brave and treat this period of liminality as a gift. It’s a moment to step off life’s roller-coaster and take stock.

The US writer William Bridges, one of the first people to explore the nature of human transitions, makes the really important point that before we start something new, we have to let go of our old situation, roles and identities. He calls this new period in our lives “the neutral zone” and stresses how we have to let go of the old, before we can begin the new. This reluctance to let go of the past is one of the biggest issues I see in my coaching.

Back to TS Eliot:

  In my beginning is my end…..

  In my end is my beginning

If you find yourself struggling with any of the issues I have raised here, please get in touch with me at https://lnkd.in/eQ4FthhV I promise I won’t spend our time together quoting from Eliot!